An English-language teacher with over 45 years of experience, Sanguan Wongsuchart never expected Covid-19 to affect his tutoring business. However, due to the drastic decrease in the number of students, Sanguan had no choice but to sell the building where his SLS Learning Centre was located and switch to online tutoring instead. Despite the shift, Sanguan says the school doesn't have as many students as before and that the pandemic has worsened his financial situation.
The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on people around the world since late last year and has hurt businesses and the global economy. Due to strict measures such as lockdowns to prevent the spread of the virus, many people are choosing to avoid large crowds by staying home. Among the businesses affected by the outbreak are tutoring centres.
Tutoring is big business in Thailand. The Office of Private Education Commission (Opec) reported earlier this year that there were over 2,600 tutoring centres in Thailand and parents across the country spend around 1.77 million baht per academic term paying either tutoring centres or tutors, according to figures from Kasikorn Research Centre.
Before the outbreak, tutoring businesses were already facing difficulties due to an economic slowdown and declining birth rate that had led to a decline in the number of students seeking services, according to Anusorn Sivakul, the CEO of Wannasorn Business Inc, which operates tutoring schools. The National Statistical Office reported that in 2014, there were over 2 million high school students nationwide but by 2018, the number had dropped to 1.8 million.
"Over the next decade, you will notice a constant decline in the birth rate. In the past, around 100,000 students took university entrance exams but recently that number stood around 50,000. Besides a low birth rate, the 2014 coup d'état triggered a slowing of the economy. Hence, when the pandemic hit Thailand, many tutoring centres had to shut down. At least five centres located in Wannasorn Tower went out of business after lockdown as they had virtually no income," explained Anusorn.
The class by Uraiwan 'Ajarn Ou' Sivakul is always packed.
Thailand's lockdown began on March 21 and tutoring centres were only allowed to reopen on June 1. However, the three-month lockdown caused severe damage to many businesses.
"March to May is the peak period for tutoring centres because of school break, however, the lockdown meant that our main source of income vanished. Despite this, we still had to pay employees and rent. Moreover, around 50% of our students asked for refunds or moved to courses at other centres while the other half opted to wait until we reopened. Since some centres couldn't afford the losses, they were forced to go out of business," said Anusorn.
Wannasorn Business is a well-known name in the industry and its renowned tutoring centre, led by Ajarn Ou's Chemistry Tutoring School, was established in 1989 by chemistry tutor Uraiwan "Ajarn Ou" Sivakul and her spouse, Anusorn Sivakul. In fact, Wannasorn Tower is the site of many tutoring centres that have alliances with one another such as Ajarn Ou's Chemistry Tutoring School, Applied Physics, Sup'K Centre and Bio Beam. When Ajarn Ou's Chemistry Tutoring School, which currently has 32 branches countrywide, opens a branch in a new location, these other centres or schools also open shop in the same building.
In order to survive and remain competitive, many tutoring centres are now providing online lessons. The English tutoring school, Angkriz Academy, which was founded in 2010 by English teacher Kanatip "Kru Loukgolf" Soonthornrak and his sibling, Saranee Soonthornrak, stands out for their positive and relaxed classroom atmosphere. Due to the pandemic and rules on social distancing, the school's capacity dropped by about 20% from 52 students to 42. However, the school already had an established online presence to make up for the shortfall.
The aurum system at Ajarn Ou's Chemistry Tutoring School allows students to rewatch content and feel as if they are in a competitive atmosphere.
"When I was a student, I attended only a few tutoring classes for subjects that I struggled with. I didn't like my classes to be scheduled at a fixed time. I believe that courses should be available for students to learn anywhere and anytime. The format of developing online lessons came from my thesis for my master's degree in technology entrepreneurship at the University College London and from my surveys of Angkriz's students. In the survey, I asked students how they wanted the classes conducted at the centre. As a result, we have been offering online courses since 2013," explained Saranee, director of Angkriz Academy.
Online courses at Angkriz are available at angkriz.com but the lessons are not suitable for every student since many lose focus easily. To serve more students, Angkriz has joined hands with another tutoring centre, Da'vance, which has branches across the country for private chamber or PC stations.
"Private chamber (PC) was launched because some parents don't believe their children can study online at home by themselves. Studying online requires determination and will from the student's side. For online learning, students have to go to a branch of Da'vance to study on computers and parents can access their mobile phones to see the progress of their children," said Saranee.
The PC station by Angkriz is similar to the aurum system at Ajarn Ou's Chemistry Tutoring School. The CEO of Wannasorn Business, Anusorn, said he isn't against online lessons but he believes the atmosphere of a classroom is just as important as the quality of teaching. To attend the aurum system, students have to go to a branch of Ajarn Ou's Chemistry Tutoring School and sit in a room among other students.
"We haven't had online courses yet because we first want to create quality online content. We shouldn't rush to bring offline content online. Students who study with the aurum system feel the competitive atmosphere because they are in the same room with other students. Some of them even answer questions aloud to Ajarn Ou who appears on a monitor," said Anusorn.
A student's response to different teaching methods varies. For example, Jean, 16, said she likes to study with the aurum system because it takes her a long time to understand content and aurum allows her to rewind and rewatch lessons. Another 16-year-old student, Mind, said she felt pressured when studying with a tutor because other students in the class could answer questions quickly. Sa, 18, prefers to study with a teacher in person because she can't focus on a lesson by herself. One thing that all students agreed on was that they need to attend tutoring schools in order to pass the university admission exam.
The co-founder and director of Angkriz Academy, Saranee Soonthornrak, launched online courses in 2013.
"We are excellent in our schools but for the university admission exam, we need to compete with students from around the country. I want to gain extra knowledge or at least more than what my school provides, so I have to attend tutoring centres," said Poom, 15.
Studying at tutoring schools is considered necessary by many families. Even families facing financial difficulty support their children and find a way to pay for tutoring classes.
Prapasorn Phothanawat, a mother of a high school student and administrator at Thai Airways, said she and her husband, who organises seminars, suffered financially because of the pandemic.
"Fortunately, my daughter has tutoring only for English and singing. The singing class is a bit expensive but I have a side job cooking, so I can continue to support my daughter."
Both Angkriz Academy and Ajarn Ou's Chemistry Tutoring School are leading centres, which means they have packed classes because of their outstanding quality. To survive the pandemic, these leading schools are now focusing on serving students.
Anusorn says the challenge is to recreate the atmosphere of a physical classroom online.
"To create online content from offline material doesn't always work well. We should create media that enables students to learn from anywhere. Lessons should be interesting, entertaining and challenging but still provide knowledge and a social environment," said Anusorn.
"Everyone needs to adjust but there needs to be a focus on the benefit of the students. Schools should adjust to technology because if we don't adjust, it will affect students the most. During the lockdown, Kru Loukgolf had to teach through Zoom and students were told to turn on cameras, so he could see every single one of them. Some students were shy to speak up, so Kru Loukgolf had to work harder to get them to interact. We hope that everyone can implement new technology and provide positive experiences to students in classrooms," said Saranee.
